Windows 10 editions
Windows 10 has twelve editions (excluding the four "N" editions), all with varying feature sets, use cases, or intended devices. Certain editions are distributed only on devices directly from a device manufacturer, while editions such as Enterprise and Education are only available through volume licensing channels. Microsoft also makes editions of Windows 10 available to device manufacturers for use on specific classes of devices, including smartphones (Windows 10 Mobile) and IoT devices. Baseline editions Baseline editions are the only editions available as standalone purchases in the retail outlets. ; : Windows 10 Home is designed for use in PCs, tablets and 2-in-1 PCs. It includes all consumer-directed features. ; : Windows 10 Pro adds additional features that are oriented towards business environments and power users. It is functionally equivalent to Windows 8.1 Pro. Enterprise-specific editions These editions add features to facilitate centralized control of many installations of the OS within an organization. The main avenue of acquiring them is a volume licensing contract with Microsoft. ; : Windows 10 Enterprise provides all the features of Windows 10 Pro, with additional features to assist with IT-based organizations, and is functionally equivalent to Windows 8.1 Enterprise. Windows 10 Enterprise is configurable on three branches, Current branch (CB), Current branch for business (CBB), and Insider Program. ; : Windows 10 Education has the same feature set as Windows 10 Enterprise and is distributed through Academic Volume Licensing. With more schools having upgrades, it will be upgraded to this edition together. ; : This edition was introduced in July 2016 for hardware partners on new devices purchased with the discounted K–12 academic license. It features a "Set Up School PCs" app that allows provisioning of settings using a USB drive , and does not include Cortana, Windows Store suggestions or Windows Spotlight. ; Enterprise : Enterprise LTSB is a long-term support version of Windows 10 Enterprise released every 2 to 3 years. They are supported with security updates for 10 years after their release, and intentionally receive no feature updates. Some features, including the Windows Store and bundled apps, are not included in this edition. ; : Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise provides all the features in Windows 10 Mobile (see below), with additional features to assist with IT-based organizations, in a manner similar to Windows 10 Enterprise, but optimized for mobile devices. Device-specific editions These editions are licensed to device manufacturers only. The main avenue of purchasing these editions is through buying a specific device (e.g. smartphones) that have them pre-installed. ; Mobile : Windows 10 Mobile is designed for smartphones and small tablets. It includes all basic consumer features, including Continuum capability. It is the de facto successor of Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows RT. ;IoT :Designed specifically for use in small footprint, low-cost devices and IoT scenarios. It is a rebranded version of Microsoft's earlier embedded operating systems, Windows Embedded. Three editions are already announced: IoT Core, IoT Enterprise, and IoT Mobile Enterprise. ;S :Windows 10 S is a feature-limited edition of Windows 10 designed primarily for low-end devices in the education market, to launch later in 2017. It has a faster initial setup and login process, and allows devices to be provisioned using a USB drive with the "Set Up School PCs" app. Users can only install software from Windows Store and system settings are locked to only allow Microsoft Edge as the default web browser with Bing as its search engine. The operating system may be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro for a fee to enable unrestricted software installation. All Windows 10 S devices will include a free one-year subscription to Minecraft: Education Edition. Critics have compared the edition to Windows RT, and have considered it to be a competitor to Chrome OS. ;Team :Windows 10 Team is a device-specific version of Windows 10 loaded onto the Surface Hub. Windows as a service In Windows 10, "feature updates", new versions of the operating system, replace service packs which appeared in the older Microsoft operating systems. Each feature update is a complete image of the operating system that can be installed on bare-metal systems as well and includes new features. Depending on the edition, it is possible to configure Windows to receive feature updates from one of the several available servicing branches, described below. The baseline and device-specific editions are only allowed on the current branch and in the Windows Insider Program, but the Enterprise-specific editions are configurable by IT administrators on any branch via Group Policy or through Mobile device management such as Microsoft Intune. ;Current branch (CB) :CB distributes all feature updates as they graduate beta testing stage. Only the latest build is officially supported by Microsoft; a 60-day grace period is provided for a newly-released build to be installed before the previous build ceases receiving patches. As of version 1703, additional settings are provided to pause or defer feature updates for a specified length of time, but they are not available on Windows 10 Home. ;Windows Insider :Windows Insider is a beta testing program that allows access to pre-release builds of Windows 10; it is designed to allow power users, developers, and vendors to test and provide feedback on future feature updates to Windows 10 as they are developed. ;Current branch for business (CBB) :CBB distributes feature updates on a four-month delay from their original release to CB. This allows customers and vendors to evaluate and perform additional testing on new builds before broader deployments. Devices can be switched back to CB at any time. CBB is not available on Windows 10 Home. An 8-month grace period is provided for a newly-released build to be installed before the previous build ceases receiving patches. ; Long-term servicing branch (LTSB) :This branch is exclusively available for Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB edition and distributes snapshots of this edition that are updated every 2-3 years. LTSB builds adhere to Microsoft's traditional support policy which was in effect before Windows 10: They are not updated with new features, and are supported with critical updates for 10 years after their release. Microsoft officially discourages the use of LTSB outside of "special-purpose devices" that perform a fixed function and hence new features do not augment the user experience in any way. Hence it excludes Windows Store, most Cortana functionality, and most bundled apps (including Microsoft Edge). Variations As with previous versions of Windows since XP, all Windows 10 editions for PC hardware have "N" and "KN" variations in Europe and South Korea that exclude certain bundled multimedia functionality, including media players and related components, in order to comply with antitrust rulings. The "Media Feature Pack" can be installed to restore these features. As with Windows 8.1, a reduced-price "Windows 10 with Bing" SKU is available to OEMs; it is subsidized by having Microsoft's Bing search engine set as default, which cannot be changed to a different search engine by OEMs. It is intended primarily for low-cost devices, and is otherwise identical to Windows 10 Home. Free upgrade At the time of launch, Microsoft deemed Windows 7 (with Service Pack 1), Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 users eligible to upgrade to Windows 10 free of charge, so long as the upgrade takes place within one year of Windows 10's initial release date. Windows RT and the respective Enterprise editions of Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 were excluded from this offer. Since July 29, 2016, Windows 10 is no longer offered as a free upgrade, instead a license must be purchased. Academic Select volume license customers who purchased prior volume license versions of Windows outright, and did not purchase Software Assurance, are also able to qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 10. However, as shown in this chart, the upgrade path is from Windows 7 Professional and Windows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10 Pro, and not to Windows 10 Education. Comparison chart Microsoft OEM licensing formula takes display size, RAM capacity and storage capacity into account. In mid-2015, devices with 4 GB RAM were expected to be $20 more expensive than devices with 2 GB RAM. See also * Windows Server 2016, the sibling of Windows 10 designed for servers * Xbox One system software, an operating system based on the Windows 10 core, designed to run on consoles Notes References Category:Windows 10 10 editions Category:Microsoft Windows Category:Microsoft Windows stubs